1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for analyzing input print information and printing a font pattern corresponding to a character code to a landscape or portrait.
2. Related Background Art
Hitherto, in such printing apparatus, there has been put into practical use an apparatus which can execute both of the portrait printing process in which the input document information is printed in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of a recording medium and the landscape printing process in which the input document information is printed in parallel with the longitudinal direction of the recording medium.
In one type of printing apparatus, the font pattern to be printed may be supplied from an external storage device such as a font cartridge or the like, where both a font pattern for the portrait print and a font pattern for the landscape print are previously stored. Either one of the font patterns is then supplied in accordance with the print control information, and the printing process is executed. In a second type, when the landscape printing process is executed, the font pattern for the portrait print is read out of the font cartridge and is transmitted through software of the printer or hardware, such as an expensive developing circuit or the like, thereby generating the landscape print font.
Therefore, in the former type, it is necessary to use a storage medium of a large capacity to store all of the font pattern for the portrait print and the font pattern for the landscape print. Although a desired font pattern can be generated at a high speed, there is a problem such that the cost of the font cartridge is remarkably high.
On the other hand, according to the latter type, it is sufficient that only the font pattern for the portrait print is stored in the font cartridge. Therefore, although the cost of the font cartridge can be reduced, there are problems such that it takes a long time for the software processes to convert the font pattern for the portrait print into the font pattern for the landscape print. The print processing efficiency is deteriorated, and the total throughput in the printer is largely reduced, and the like.